Megan McLaughlin Journalist Profile

Articles

How doctors can have successful crucial conversations

Feb 10, 2024 | kevinmd.com | Frances Mei Hardin |Kim Downey |Anthony Avellino |Megan McLaughlin

One thing that all those years of education, medical training, and textbook studying can never quite fully prepare us for as physicians is crucial conversations with our patients. There’s an element to mastering these conversations that comes with being an attending physician, bearing sole provider responsibility, and having them ourselves. They may start off clunky at first in early practice, but we hope to continually improve with time.
Lahaina schools are open again. Parents worry they’re ridden with toxic waste.

Nov 1, 2023 | vox.com | Megan McLaughlin

On October 15, a day before Lāhainā’s public schools were set to reopen, the families of West Maui — still reeling from the deadliest wildfire in US history — received a grim warning. Hawai‘i public health officials said the ash from the fire in Kula, a mountain town 25 miles east of Lāhainā, contained dangerously high levels of arsenic, 140 times greater than the federal safety limit.
Eighty percent of French worried about climate change: report

Oct 25, 2023 | rfi.fr | Megan McLaughlin

Published Wednesday, the "2023 report on the state of France" shows that all age groups share this concern, with no major difference between people aged under 35 years and older people. However it did note a gap in concern between men and women. Some 86 percent of women compared to 74 percent of men said they were worried about climate change. Faced with eco-anxiety, the report found that a large majority – 80 percent – of people wanted to minimise their personal impact on the environment.
How U.S. Hospitals Undercut Public Health

Oct 5, 2023 | undark.org | Megan McLaughlin

Health care in the United States — the largest industry in the world’s largest economy — is notoriously cost inefficient, consuming substantially more money per capita to deliver far inferior outcomes relative to peer nations. What is less widely recognized is that the health care industry is also remarkably energy inefficient.
The Race to Protect Endangered Condors Against Deadly Bird Flu

Oct 4, 2023 | undark.org | Megan McLaughlin

Early March last year, an endangered California condor — one of less than 350 of its kind surviving in the wild — perched on an Arizona cliff-face staring into space for days. It’s probably sick from lead poisoning, thought Tim Hauck, the condor program director with The Peregrine Fund, a nonprofit conservation group helping to reintroduce condors to the skies above Grand Canyon and Zion.
Malaysia to seed clouds to combat smoke from fires in Indonesia

Oct 3, 2023 | laprensalatina.com | Megan McLaughlin

Bangkok, Oct 3 (EFE).- The Malaysian authorities have prepared a series of measures, including seeding clouds and closing schools, to combat air pollution from hundreds of fires raging in neighboring Indonesia. In a statement late Monday, the country’s Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment, and Climate Change underlined the possible actions after it detected about 250 fires on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra.
Coral threatened by chemicals, including several in sunscreen, French study confirms

Sep 18, 2023 | rfi.fr | Megan McLaughlin

The French Agency for food, environmental and occupational health (Anses), has urged the French government to limit – or enforce limits on – runoffs of chemicals that could harm coral reefs, which provide fifty percent of the earth’s oxygen, and are currently under threat.
Too Hot to Learn

Sep 8, 2023 | loe.org | Megan McLaughlin

Air Date: Week of As extreme heat linked to climate disruption becomes more common during the school year, many U.S. schools lack adequate cooling and ventilation systems to keep kids safe and focused on learning.
California’s Salton Sea Eyed for Lithium Extraction With New Tech

Sep 5, 2023 | undark.org | Megan McLaughlin

When Sonia Herbert, 78, opened a restaurant in Bombay Beach, a small California neighborhood about 80 miles northeast of San Diego, she welcomed the bustle of tourists and locals visiting the Salton Sea shoreline. Located in Imperial County, the lake and its wetlands offer crucial habitats for migratory birds and a refuge for people from the hot desert sun.
Poor air quality persists as wildfire smoke lingers over Alberta

Sep 4, 2023 | cbc.ca | Megan McLaughlin

Smoke from wildfires continues to drift across Alberta, covering much of the province in a thick haze. After days shrouded in smog, special air quality statements remain in effect for almost every part of the province. The advisories from Environment Canada caution that smoke pollution can be harmful to everyone's health, even at low concentrations. Air pollution from wildfires has become an unwelcome part of summer in Alberta and this past week was no exception.